Wii U Review: New hardware is beautiful, lacks simplicity of original

For Nintendo Co. Ltd., this simple fact is at once the greatest selling point and single tallest hurdle facing its new console.

The Wii U is a fascinating, fun-to-use piece of hardware that is every bit as revolutionary as the original Wii which launched in 2006 and went on to become a wild (and surprising) commercial success.

However, the beauty of the original Wii was its simplicity — its innate power to enable anyone from young children to grandparents to pick up a wand and jump into a game. Now, the challenge for Nintendo will be communicating what makes the more complex Wii U special to the broader mainstream audience and why all those people who picked up a Wii to play at parties should be looking to snag a Wii U for the people on their holiday shopping list.

The Wii U’s conceit, that the system beams images to two screens — one on your TV and another onto its touchscreen GamePad— is problematic for a few reasons. It is indeed more complex than the Wii (some less charitable might say “muddled”) and its value is not immediately obvious to the casual observer.

Firstly, it’s hard for a lot of people to grasp that concept on the first try. When you try and explain the system to someone not intimately familiar with it, often you’ll get a follow-up query (“So, the controller is a portable system?”), which will need to be explained further (“No, by itself the GamePad doesn’t do anything, all of the processing is done by the main system.”)

Secondly, it isn’t easily apparent exactly why the concept of having a second touchpad screen would enhance the enjoyment of the experience of using a video-game system. Unlike the Wii Remote, which people could instantly understand, the reasoning behind the Wii U GamePad is murkier.

Essentially, when Ellen DeGeneres and Good Morning America dedicated segments to the Wii, it was easy to see how everyone could “get it” right away. I’m not sure that’s true of the Wii U.

Heck, Jimmy Fallon thought it was an add-on and not a whole new system.

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SMART REMOTE

As you set up your Wii U you’ll be asked if you want to use the GamePad to control your TV and cable box.

Say yes.

It’s a simple process that merely requires you to select your TV manufacturer and box provider, then press a couple of virtual buttons on the touch screen to test your setup. We connected a Samsung TV and a Rogers cable box and the Wii U worked like a charm, allowing us to switch input sources, adjust volume, call up a program guide, and switch channels all without problem.

But there’s more to the Wii U’s multimedia capabilities than simply using the GamePad as a glorified universal remote.

An ambitious new service called Nintendo TVii marks the company’s first serious foray into the world of living room entertainment beyond games. When it launches, it will apparently let people browse live TV, record programs, and access streaming video from services like Netflix, all from a single app on your Wii U GamePad’s touch screen.

Unfortunately, Nintendo announced last week that Nintendo TVii will be delayed and won’t arrive now until sometime in December as part of a console update.

Until then, Wii U buyers interested in exploiting the console’s multimedia capabilities are risking investing in an unknown entity — especially Canadians, who likely won’t have access to several of Nintendo TVii’s integrated streaming video services, including Hulu Plus and Amazon.

However after messing with the system for a couple of days, I can say that the GamePad leads to some innovative and interesting gameplay experiences — ones that are, frankly, more worthwhile than the somewhat shallow motion controlled experiences.

As for gaming, the best addition from the GamePad is asymmetrical play, with one person using the GamePad to interact with a game in a significantly different way from the rest of the players. The best example of this is in one of the minigames in the marquee title Nintendoland.

One player plays as a Ghost, and the others chase after him. The Ghost and the rest of the players are basically in two different interlocking games. It feels as if Nintendo has opened up a field of fertile, untouched game design space.

Simply put, the GamePad feels like a natural and comfortable extension to the traditional game space.

In this way, the Wii U is kind of the opposite of the Wii. Where the Wii had an easily explainable new feature with a clear purpose that ultimately felt shallow, the Wii U has a new feature that’s hard to explain, but far more interesting and robust than motion control ever was. After playing with the GamePad for a while, it felt strange to go back to a system without it.

That isn’t to say everything with the system is perfect once you figure it out. A good chunk of the system’s functionality, (including all of its online features and backwards compatibility with old-Wii software) require a large day-one patch.

But even with the patch, the system sort of feels like a room where all of the walls are freshly painted and the furniture hasn’t been moved in yet.

Features such as friends lists and large-scale online gaming have never really existed on a Nintendo home console before. And services like the quasi social-network-like “Miiverse” haven’t been tried anywhere before. You can tell that Nintendo is figuring this stuff out as they go.

So is the Wii U worth buying?

The answer to that question is a little bit less clear. There are at least four or five interesting launch titles that are well worth playing, but prognosticating the system’s future is murky at this point.

The truth is the next PlayStation and next Xbox will almost certainly be out next fall and will fantastically outstrip the Wii U from a technical standpoint (the Wii U is about on par with the Xbox 360 under the hood). It’s an open question if the Wii U will still be relevant in that situation.

But then, few people expected the original Wii to become such a commercial success.

In the meantime, there are some very cool things happening on the Wii U. It may not be perfect yet, but the system feels refreshing and new, and I’m excited to see what games will come out for it as designers get to explore the GamePad and what it can do.

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AT A GLANCE

Is the Wii U an add-on to the Wii?No, this is a brand-new, more powerful system than the Wii. Unlike the Wii, it outputs HD signals to your TV.

Explain the system in one paragraph.The Wii U is much like the grown up version of the handheld Nintendo DS. It has two screens: Your HD television and on the “GamePad” included with the system. The GamePad is basically a traditional game controller with a touch screen in the middle.

What other features does the GamePad have?In addition to the touch screen and controller buttons, the gamepad has a microphone, motion controls, a camera, and a “near-field” sensor (think Skylanders).

What doesn’t the GamePad do?Play games by itself. All of the computer processing is done by the Wii U system. The signal is being beamed to the pad. Think of it this way, just like your television is only displaying the images sent from the system, so too is the GamePad.

What’s the range on the GamePad?About 20-25 feet. So you can play it in bed (or in the bathroom) if the room is close enough and you have thin enough walls. If the signal is weak, there may be some stuttering from the video or you may get a message that the pad has lost contact with the Wii U. If that happens, you need to move it closer to the system to reconnect.

Is there any noticeable lag when playing on the gamepad screen?Surprisingly no. Even in games where precision matters, such as New Super Mario Bros. U, the controls were very snappy, even a room (and a wall) away from the system.

How powerful is the system on the whole at a technical level?About on par with the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Won’t it be outdated when the next Xbox and PlayStation come out?It could be. It depends on how well people take to the GamePad. It could mostly be that there will be different games coming out on the Wii U.

Does it have online functionality out of the box?Sort of. The system requires a major Day 1 patch to add in its online functionality. It took us about an hour-and-a-half to download the patch, although it’s up in the air how long it will take on launch day.

Can I play games just on the GamePad without the TV?It depends on the game. Some games require both the TV and the GamePad to operate correctly. Others allow you to set the GamePad as the main screen and play the full experience on the smaller screen. New Super Mario Bros. U allows you to play this way for example, as does Assassin’s Creed III. At a system level, the Wii U is fully usable without a television hooked up.

Will my Wii games work on the Wii U?Yes, although you need to apply the same day-one patch that starts up the Wii U’s online functions to get Wii games working.

Are my old Wii games enhanced?No. All Wii software works through a Wii emulation level. Essentially, you press a button, the gamepad turns off, and you are whisked to a “Wii” menu that recreates the Wii system exactly (right down to the SD screen resolution).

What about my Wii virtual console games and Wii-Ware, do they work?You are able to transfer your downloaded software over in a relatively convoluted way involving memory card swapping (this is explained in the instruction manual).

Can I play my old virtual console games just using the GamePad?No. Like with all Wii software, the GamePad is essentially turned off while the Wii U is in “Wii” mode.